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Elohim Podcast
Welcome to Elohim Podcast, a podcast about real life issues from a biblical perspective. We want to show love without compromising the truth. The bible teaches us how to live a righteous life style, yet understanding that we are imperfect. Join us on this journey as we give different perspectives a voice.
Elohim Podcast
Karina Moreno's Story: Faith, Resilience, and the Power of Unconditional Love
As we gather around the virtual fireside of our latest podcast installment, prepare to be moved by the life-affirming journey of Karina Moreno. From a miraculous entry into this world to weaving her musical magic at Madison Square Garden, Karina's story is one of faith, family, and the pursuit of a calling that often demands a titanic struggle. Her insights into navigating the rigors of a large family, facing the challenges of single motherhood, and grappling with personal trials illuminate a path of resilience and the redemptive power of love.
Witness the candid revelations about parenting in stormy seasons, the delicate dance between support and enabling, and the anchoring role of faith in the darkest hours. Karina's narrative, peppered with wisdom from her own trials, offers solace and strategies for those wrestling with self-acceptance, anxiety, and the specter of suicide. As she shares her evolution, we see how adversity can be the crucible in which purpose and anointing are forged, offering hope that our own struggles might also lead to growth and a deeper understanding of our place in the world.
In a symphony of soul-stirring dialogue, we explore the notion of God's unconditional love as a transformative force in both personal and marital realms. Karina delves into the nuances of rebuilding faith from the ashes of despair and how embracing hardship can pave the way to a more profound and authentic life calling. This episode is a beacon for anyone seeking to reconcile their faith with the complexities of personal conviction, the creative process, and the pursuit of one's unique anointing in the harmonious yet demanding arena of life's grand symphony. Join us and let Karina Moreno's powerful testimony echo long after the last note fades.
#podcasts #jesus #faith #christianpodcast #christian #music #mariachi #hope #motivational #motherhood #divorce #marriage #mentalhealth
When my mom was pregnant of me, doctor said she's coming all defected. You need to have an abortion. Really, yes, I was not supposed to be born, according to doctors and science.
Speaker 3:The doctor said you had all these defects and they recommended. The doctors recommended your parents to have an abortion.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Welcome to Elohim Podcast, a podcast about real life issues from a biblical perspective. On this podcast, we don't just want to be entertained, we want to be changed. Listen to the end to hear what God has for your life. Elohim Podcast. Welcome to Elohim Podcast, a podcast about real life issues from a biblical perspective. Today in the studio we have someone special, someone that even my family has listened to growing up. Her music has touched the lives of millions of people, actually thousands of people, and she's actually her family. The Moreno family is from Arizona. Today, we're just honored and privileged to have somebody like yourself, karina Moreno. How's it going? How are you doing?
Speaker 2:Thank you, ezekiel, I'm doing great. I'm doing wonderful, happy to be here, honestly. Thank you so much. You'm doing great. I'm doing wonderful happy to be here honestly.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Uh, you have been an inspiration to so many people, uh, so many young ladies or people in general or moms cleaning their houses. I told her. I told her I remember when my mom would sometimes put uh mariachi in el cielo while she was. While she was cleaning.
Speaker 2:I get that story a lot. I make people clean, you make people clean. It's a good thing.
Speaker 3:It's a good thing. Well, I told you, if it's not a good song, people are not going to listen to it, while they're singing it. Right, that's right. No, but thank you. Today, I think my goal of this podcast is to not just have you sing you do plenty of that already and not just, you know, talk, superficial stuff or surface level stuff. But I really want to know who you are, what you've been through your story and hear it from the source, hear it from the person itself. Right, and now you're involved in politics and all that stuff. So how's it been Like? How was your upbringing Like, singing at age five with Los Alamos, later on as well, mariachi, los Alamos. How was your childhood like, growing up in that environment?
Speaker 2:It was a lot of adventure, a lot of adventure and I had two parents who believed in me since I was little and I had two parents who believed in me since I was little and that helped with the confidence that I had to debut at five years old at Madison Square Garden, open up for a sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden where my parents were performing, and that was an amazing experience. I think that it all starts with the parents, the confidence that you get It'll start there, and I just had amazing parents that I mean. These were weird parents to the average person, excuse me, because most parents say go to school, you know, get your degree. My parents, if I said I wanted to be a doctor or anything, they'd say, no, you sing, you be a singer.
Speaker 3:So I had a lot of my Would you say you were your, your like dad's or your mom's pride and joy, because not only could you sing mariachi, but you had the gift to write songs.
Speaker 2:I, I think to a certain level, yes, I was, and, and I mean there's 12 of us and I think all of us brought pride and joy in a different aspect and I think, because I stuck with the music that was more prominent in their uh liking then I just got lucky to be the spoiled one in that area, just because I got to travel more, because I sang the music that they would sing with and if they had a live mariachi, well, it was easier to sing along with them.
Speaker 3:¿cómo fue crecer con 12 hermanos y hermanas, like 12 de ustedes, incluyendo y aparte de sus papás? How was it having 12 brothers and sisters in the house?
Speaker 2:Mucha aventura and a lot of chaos, was it, like Never, a dull moment?
Speaker 3:Was it? Did you guys ever like? You know? How was it? I know sometimes people see the glam and the glory and the shining lights. They see the glory but not the fire Never. How was it? You know, financially, did you guys ever struggle trying to make it with your music? And you know, getting out there? Was there any moment where you're like man, what are we going to do today?
Speaker 2:So I think the struggle was before the music, because my parents, they did start singing from the moment they got married and they started touring even before I was born. Their first album that they cut is called Maranata.
Speaker 3:Maranata.
Speaker 2:And my mom is in the cover with me in her belly. Really, yes, and that is the first album I mean, it's an LP and I'm in the belly in that cover. So I was listening to a lot of music from before I was out of her belly. But those starving artist moments, I didn't know them because my father was a very faithful person who knew God would provide for everything. So I never knew when there was scarcity and there was. But I didn't know it because growing up there was always plenty of everything we needed. But when I got to a certain age where my mom started telling me stories about how one day she was like worried that there was no food in the fridge for breakfast, only dinner, only dinner. And what I do recall about that story was that my father had left his job to go full-time ministry and full-time musician and evangelist right.
Speaker 2:So I got to travel and do great, glamorous things, didn't see that there was scarcity in some areas. And that day or that night my mother goes to my father and says there's no food for breakfast. What are we going to do? And my father said go to sleep, god will provide. And she said I'm talking about tomorrow morning. He's like there's going to be food in the morning. She said how? He says I don't know.
Speaker 3:Man, that's a man of faith.
Speaker 2:God doesn't give me all that information. He just says to trust him.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so he did, waking up to a knock on the door around seven in the morning and seeing a lot of food dispersed throughout the patio in the front, Serious. And this woman said the Lord woke me up this morning and said go buy a pastor and his children food that'll last them two weeks. And so now I look back and I go. I remember that day but I didn't know it was a miracle Because they never told us that there was need, because they wanted us to feel safe. And so as I grew up then they were the what we call the golden years of the music. So my parents made it big really fast, so I didn't live in that starving artist mode. However, financially they faced some hardships. I didn't know there was some, but what I did face was emotional hardship and the emotional hardship where, for several years, what I call the formative years of my life Right.
Speaker 2:Because that is when I got to write songs like En Sus Brazos, mariachi en el Cielo. God was already forming my life there.
Speaker 3:There was a a strong forging through the fire, through the process, a lot of hormonal changes because I was going through puberty and I was going through all of these changes because you, when you brought up that song, you were telling me that in that moment to the world it might seem like wow, carina moreno, this pretty talented and you're so pretty right. Thank you, amazing young lady. They would never have guessed. When I saw the video, I didn't guess that. You know, you seem like such a charismatic outgoing person when I would see you play the violin and sing your heart out. It seemed like you were having such a great time. But you told me that you were going through it at that moment yeah, from age 15 to about, uh, when I turned 18.
Speaker 2:Those were hard years for me and that's what I want to expound on a little bit if we have some time here, because people get desperate and in a hurry and they seek answers and they want them fast. What they don't understand, that it's a physical thing, it's a hormonal thing. Our bodies are changing. I was going through puberty and I hated myself and I looked in the mirror and I hated every aspect of myself. Unfortunately, today, when someone goes through that, they go to people that will tell them well, maybe you're not happy because you're in the wrong body.
Speaker 2:And if they would only wait till the hormones settle down, they'd realize they're in the right body. It's just a matter of balance in your physical aspect, and so some people say, oh, it's a spiritual battle. Other people say, well, it's, it's more of a mental health with you.
Speaker 3:I believe it's a normal, right hormonal imbalance are you saying that because at that time you weren't happy with your image, your body?
Speaker 2:I hated everything about me and people. I I mean, I this is going to sound funny, but I was a good looking young girl and now I look back and I go. Why was I so sad?
Speaker 3:I should have appreciated that more. I can testify that I'm like oh my God.
Speaker 2:You know, and all these guys were always like, oh, you're so beautiful. And I go like, no, I'm not. What are they? I hate myself. Like what are they looking at? And and my father would say you're so beautiful, you are this. And I didn't believe anybody. But then I got to a point where I started accepting even the, the flaws that I had. I started loving them and and, um, embrace not loving them, embracing them. I think. The love for myself unfortunately came in my later adult years, and that will expound a little bit because of unfortunate events that happen in your journey, right, and so in this time I would tell people, hang in there for a while. I have three children. They too went through those hormonal changes and not once did I say let's take you to find out if maybe you were born in the wrong body. Not once. I would constantly say you're going to get through this, you're going to the wrong body. Not once I would constantly say you're gonna get through this.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You're gonna get through this. And yes, there was a lot of challenging moments with my children. Thank God, they're already past those years and they're moving forward. They're not perfect, but they're in a good place Not perfect, but good and I think that's a good thing.
Speaker 3:No, that's good thing, no, it's amazing. So what can you tell? Because I know that you were talking about your daughter. You love your child, you love your family, you're a family person. Mariachi I feel like mariachi itself represents family orientation absolutely, and you know the pride of being a Mexican and all that stuff. It's beautiful. But you know what? I've been getting reached out by different moms, parents that are concerned, legitly concerned, especially right now, with society and how it is of their children, of what they see. They see them going through a tough time and I said, ezekiel, I send them the podcast in hopes that they listen to it and they get closer to God. Your daughter you said that your concerns have changed from one to another. Can you tell me a little bit about you? Know what hope you can give and what has happened to you when it comes to your family, your child?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. As mothers, we're going to do anything we can to make sure that our kids are going to be safe. So what I would tell a mother that is going through what I've been through with my children, in their challenging hormonal imbalance and all of those years Hang in there, be present for them, though. Be present because they need to feel safe in spite of their challenges. So they're going to be in their room, they're going to be sad and feel all kinds of challenging feelings and emotions All kinds. I mean negative ones.
Speaker 2:However, if they know that they're in a safe place, they will feel a little bit of strength, even if they're not feeling the entire strength that they, as a mom, we want them to have. They will feel some strength and know they could always come to you. My kids always knew they could come to me. It didn't matter what the challenge was, even if it was something they knew that mom didn't want to hear, because there's scary things for a mother to hear from a child who's going through depression, anxiety, and so when my children would come with me to that, I just had to be strong and listen, without coming apart, for them to feel, oh my God. That's why.
Speaker 3:I can't come tomorrow. What did you feel? But what did you say when your child would come and tell you mom, I'm feeling depressed, mom, I'm feeling anxious, or mom, I'm doing this, I'm doing that to myself? What did you feel and what did you say?
Speaker 2:Based on how I confronted my anxiety and depression. I would tell them you're going to have to understand something that feelings they're not good or bad, they're just feelings. God made us emotional so we can feel, but it doesn't mean it's a good or a bad thing, it's. It's a feeling. So you're alive, you can feel you're alive. That's hope. Now, every day, I'd say do something that makes you feel better. So instead of being locked up in your room a lot of us lock ourselves up when we're depressed go for a walk, and there's just a process and we don't have time to go through all of that. But what I would tell you as a mom is just be present. If they need you, make sure that you are.
Speaker 2:It's a fine line right, it's a fine line, because they can also take advantage of you if they see you're just going to be at their beckons call and that they can manipulate a situation, knowing mom's going to be here. It doesn't matter my behavior. No, what I learned through this is that me being um extremely permissive about a few things, because I felt that if I didn't give into it, they would rebel and hurt themselves or go the deep end, right? So I made the mistake of saying just give this to her, just do this so she won't cry, so she won't feel depressed. That's damaging. What I had to learn is You're just masking the symptoms?
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah. You're not healing the root cause.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. What I had to understand is that the battle wasn't mine, it was God's, and the authority that God gives you, he tells you go into the room and speak with this authority. Don't be afraid. See, moms get afraid because we hear so much suicide.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we see people I know, dear people to me, that have had that happen to them. So that was something very scary to me and I said I never want to experience this, so I'm just going to be at their beckons call. That's damaging because the manipulative spirit comes through it all. So, as a mother, I had to realize god gave me an authority and I can't be afraid of the enemy, and the enemy is the one that is causing a lot of this uh challenge right now. So I'd go in there and say, no, you're not going to do this, I'm not afraid of that. Stop threatening me with those words Like if you don't give me this, then I'm just going to do this.
Speaker 3:Don't do that Como chantajeando Exactamente.
Speaker 2:Es como hacer alcahuete Y decir sabes que no le voy a hacer daño, para que no se haga daño, no le haces más daño.
Speaker 3:Entonces tu hija o tú has confrontado, como madre, situaciones donde ha habido depresión, ansiedad, pero también self-harm, y tú has tomado la posición de ser amorosa pero también firme. Firme Y decir ¿sabes qué? Hasta aquí, llegó.
Speaker 2:Yo quiero dormir y no puedo dormir contigo. Así es que vas a hacer lo que vas a hacer. Dios va a estar conmigo y me va a ayudar y vas a quedar, tú, en el olvido. Así le dije, así me lo dije I can sleep with you. So you're going to do what you're going to do, god is going to be with me and he's going to help me and you're going to stay in oblivion.
Speaker 3:That's what I said.
Speaker 2:That's what I said. There was never another attentive to damage when I told him do what you're going to do, but I'm going to sleep Because I haven't slept in two years, Two years Of pure being awake to be sure that nothing was going de puro estar despierta para estar segura que nada iba a pasar, que nada iba a lastimar y dañar. Entonces yo dije no, me voy a dormir, Haz lo que hagas.
Speaker 3:Dios está conmigo.
Speaker 2:Eso es lo que tú dijiste, es lo que dije Y dije Dios, no me quiero arrepentir por lo que dije. Hasta ahí llegó la amenaza, hasta ahí llegó la manipulación. Jamás otro atento Empecé a ver luz en su vida.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:Empezó a ir a la iglesia, empezó a ayudar con los ministerios, ahí, ahorita, sirve. Es la que me dice mamá, no te viene a la iglesia esta semana. Claro, obvio, yo estaba ministrando en otro lugar, ah, es que estabas trabajando. Pero ella siempre está tan atenta. Y ahora hay un balance para todo, porque también lo que puede suceder es que porque alguien no quiere regresar a las costumbres de autocondenación y de lastimarte y de hacer cosas que pueden lastimar a tu familia, estás arraigado de la religiosidad Y eso daña tanto como el otro. Es un spectrum Y te puede dañar tanto. Sabes por qué? Porque estás viviendo en una religiosidad y en una relación. Entonces, lo que ella ha tenido que aprender es que Dios no está atento para dañarte, está atento para abrazarte, y eso es lo que muchos religiosos no entienden. And I'm going to say this in English now I have known about God for 50 years because I'm 50. Wow, but I know God himself and I met him eight years ago.
Speaker 2:Eight years ago. That's eight years that I've known.
Speaker 3:God and you know what, watching your stuff and listening to your music and looking at other stuff, through the Spirit I could discern. And I'm not trying to be all spiritual and all that, but God has given me some discernment. You look better today. Oh, thank you, and I'm not just talking about physically, but emotionally, spiritually. I can see a glow in your eyes that I didn't see seven, eight, 10 years ago. Maybe it's because now you're married to a amazing man I am, but you are and you'll tell me a little bit more about that Cause you guys even did a video, a wedding video and a song. But this important what you said I've known and I heard about god, but I haven't and I didn't know about him and I didn't get to know him really personally, personally, until seven, eight years ago. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Speaker 2:yeah, you want to know how I met him tell me because I was angry at him.
Speaker 3:You were angry I.
Speaker 2:I said you know what I've known about you, but I don't even know if you are really real. And I challenged him. I said I checked every box so that one day I could be divorced and be in a place that I never imagined I'd be in, Because the boxes I checked religion told me check this box, and that can't happen to you.
Speaker 2:Wow, check this one, and that can't happen to you. I checked them all and all of that did happen to me. Wow. So I went to my bed and I got rebellious for the first time.
Speaker 2:I had always been a very submissive person to religion, to my parents, and obedient, and I believe that God has blessed a lot of that, because there was a sincerity in my heart. God wants a relationship with us. And so I remember I was in my room and I was. I had the pillow and I was like throwing a tantrum and I was mad and I looked up and I go I know you exist because I've seen you in action, but I don't know you. And to me, if all of this is a product and a consequence of checking every box, then everything I've believed in in the last I don't know how many years that was it's been a lie and I'm mad at you, I'm upset. So don't use me anymore. I don't want to ever preach, I don't want to sing. Look away, find somebody else. I just want to die in my misery wow, like.
Speaker 3:Those are the thank you for.
Speaker 2:God, those were the words I told him and I cried and I was alone in my room and Ezekiel I can't explain how I heard it or felt it, but the voice was loud and clear and it said you can run, karinita, you can go, do what you want to do. My presence will never stop pursuing you, and that's when I learned that when God chooses you, it's irrevocable. He's not going to take it back. He already picked me. He couldn't pick somebody else, and that goes to all the people that want my baton. You can't pick somebody else. He picked you. Wow, pick your own baton.
Speaker 3:He picked you yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow. And God came and said no, peter. He rejected me three times, but my word and my promise is so firm I couldn't go back on it and that's why I still used him to be the one who started the church. So he used a sinner like Peter to be the beginning of what we are today. He could have said Peter, you suck. And I know I'm going to get in trouble because I said you suck, but I said it hey, we're being here LOA podcast, a podcast about real life issues from a vocal perspective.
Speaker 3:So you told God God, I did everything I was supposed to do, I obeyed my parents, I was in church. I I behaved well. I didn't do this, I didn't that. I got married like I'm supposed to. I had children, but then I got divorced. This is chaos. This is a mess. I'm dealing with all this criticism and critiquing and all that stuff. So you were in a moment of desperation and deception. They say that men make decisions based off two things inspiration or desperation. And in that moment inspiration I got out the door.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was done with inspiration, god.
Speaker 3:what am I going to do? What? What am I supposed to do? I'm even contemplating that you even exist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. I said I know you exist because I've seen you at work. I would be very ignorant, and you know, to say the least, um, if I would deny your existence. I'm not going to be atheist, but I'm mad at you and I don't want to talk. And you know what I learned? That I did two things that day. I was.
Speaker 2:They say, the most dangerous person is one who has nothing to lose. I'd already lost it all. So I said I have nothing to lose. Find somebody else. Just let me die here, leave me alone. He says I'm going to pursue you. Somebody had left me and somebody else was saying I'm not going to leave you. I fell in love with him. I met his heart and he says you thought I wanted you to be at church every Sunday. You thought I wanted you to wear long skirts every Sunday. You thought I wanted you not to wear all that makeup. I never said that. A man or a woman made that up because it was convenient for them it made them feel better, imposed it on you and you thought that was me.
Speaker 2:You know what I wanted you to do? And I said what? And he goes. All I wanted was your heart. I just wanted to get to know you. I created you to have a relationship with you. Beautiful, you don't even have to go preach if you don't want anymore. You're missing out if you don't, but if you say today, I will never, I'm not going to stop loving you.
Speaker 3:Wow, and you know what that is, karina. That's called unconditional love.
Speaker 2:Nobody gets it.
Speaker 3:God doesn't look. God doesn't love you more today than he loved you yesterday. He loved you as a sinner and now he loves you the same way as a justified because we're not perfect as a justified, righteous child of God. Yes, through the blood of Jesus, through his righteousness it's not even mine Through the blood of Jesus, right, justified, there's nothing we can do that will make God love us less or more. He loves us the same. Now the consequences. And then Victor will get you some tissue, thank you, this conversation is getting real.
Speaker 3:But this conception of that, you know, we have to do this, we have to do that in order for God to love us. Yes, it's false, and you know, I think that sometimes we think that God loves how the world loves, absolutely how we do it. How we do it, yes, if I don't, if I fall short of the glory of God which we all do, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God that he's going to stop loving us. And when we understand that man, god really loves me, regardless of my mistakes, of my wounds, I am not what they've done to me and I am no longer what I've done.
Speaker 3:Yes, and you know, there's nothing we can do that will make God love us more or less. But there is consequences, though I just want to point that out, that you know your actions do have consequences and rewards you what you've been through you said something powerful they left me, but God would never stop pursuing me. Yeah, what can you tell to that woman or that man you know that has felt abandoned, forsaken? Maybe they're going through a divorce or a hard situation? How did you feel? What were you going through and what relief did you feel when you got those words from God?
Speaker 2:So first the words are they're water to a thirsty soul because you're drained, like when he told the woman at the well. It wasn't a coincidence that he used the metaphor of water. Women get thirsty and if we're not watered, we're like a garden If you don't water us, we dry up. And I was dry. I was dry and I heard him say I'm going to give you, or he, I'm sorry. He told the Samaritan woman I'm, I'm gonna give you water, but not the one that you're used to taking the, the ones from that man, that one, there's five. Then she was about to start with number six and and you know, and he's like you're, you're thirsty, so you're drinking all this water that makes you more thirsty. He says I'm gonna give you water, not from the well, I'm gonna give you one that's gonna make you never thirst again. So right now, my identity doesn't. I love that my husband wakes up in the morning. Even when I look ugly, no lashes my hair's like this.
Speaker 3:I can't imagine that, karina, I can't imagine that, but no.
Speaker 2:And he'll say you're so beautiful, but and that's him watering you.
Speaker 3:That's him watering you, that's him watering you.
Speaker 2:That's how you water, the plants.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's how you know why and I'm going to stray it just a little bit because we're already here Right, the reason why so many marriages fail is because the grass looks greener on the other side. Why does it look greener? Because it starts drying here, so you just start going. Oh my God, why does that woman look prettier than my wife? Well, maybe you stopped watering the grass where you are in and it looks dry and she looks withered because there's no more love. A woman multiplies what a man gives her. God put him to put poor life into her and she multiplies that. So if a man say you look bad today, well, you know what? Your tacos aren't going to come out very delicious. But if my husband, what did I tell you before the show started? I got to get home because why?
Speaker 3:You want to eat dinner with your husband.
Speaker 2:Why do I want to do it? Because he's watering my garden every single day. He's I love you, baby. He provides for me, he does. It would be awful for me to say I kiss you. Yeah no, it's my love, my honor to serve my husband. Because he waters our garden, my grass is green.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you could tell.
Speaker 2:It's green, and he doesn't have to look over there and say, oh my God, that woman's better than my wife. No, he's like beautiful woman, but I've got the one that God gave me here. And so many marriages fail because you stop watering. The man is the captain of the boat, gets off the boat, leaves the family alone and starts wandering in choppy waters, and then finds disillusion. And here's the deceptive part of the grass is greener on the other side? It absolutely is, ezekiel. There's better women than me out there. There's a lot prettier everything. However, if my husband were to go and leave this wife here, or your husband, whoever's paying attention right now goes all of a sudden, he's going to say, wow, this grass look greener from far. Why is it drying?
Speaker 2:that's because you got there, you dried it wow, you didn't provide you didn't provide and you're going to be jumping from grass to grass to grass, and it's going to look greener when you're not there. But as soon as you get there. Well, that's so true because men are supposed to be the providers and the head of the house.
Speaker 3:We don't understand that we're also providers, not just financially, not just through protection, but emotionally. And that is true whatever we give a woman, she multiplies. We give her the seed. She gives us a child. Child we buy a house, she gives us a home. Yes, man, thank you. But give her hell and she'll give you armageddon, world war, three hades, hades all hades breaks loose hades 2.0 that is so true.
Speaker 3:But thank you for sharing thatina, because right now you're ministering to me, because sometimes I think that we can be so preoccupied with work, with this and that, and I'll be honest, sometimes I have to work with different people, different women, different all this. And you know mentors in my life. Tell me, ezekiel, be careful with your eyes. Be careful with having haughty eyes and haughty thoughts. Don't let them get into your heart. Take care of what's yours, take care of what God is giving you. Proverbs say cherish the woman of your youth. You know, cherish your wife. And I think sometimes that as men, we're succeeding in different areas but we're failing in what's most important. Yes, your soulmate, the woman from your rib, the woman of your children, you know, and the mother of your children. And honestly, right now you're ministering to me in the sense that you're reminding me and this goes out to all the young men in whatever marriage, you know, we have to water our, our significant other, our wives. Yes, and that's true, I think, if I think about it.
Speaker 3:Um, recently, oh, I, I made the effort of finding a perfume that my wife would love. My wife has a very strong sense of smell, a smell like very strong. So not every perfume is pleasing to her because it's too strong, but I made the effort. I was like I want my wife to smell luxurious, I want to be around her, my man. So it's just funny and it was expensive but it was me showing off. I love when my wife wears purses, that I purchase her because it makes me feel like she is confident, she likes it and she's a representation. She's your queen, she's my queen. I can't go out to church or anywhere and me look amazing or whatever and my wife not look great and my children not look great. If I look great, my children have to look great, my wife. So thank you for sharing that. That's a good priest, that's a good priest, thank you, that's a good captain.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we're the captain of the ship.
Speaker 2:I always say you know, feminists don't know what they're missing. They say I don't need a captain, I could we have a boat. We go to the lake in the summer. I know how to drive it while I get a tan in the back with a little drink Wow.
Speaker 3:I'm the queen of the boat. That is so good. He said, I can drive the boat. I can drive it, but I don't want to.
Speaker 2:I could open my doors, I could do all those things I don't want to.
Speaker 3:I want my king to do it for me, get that shot on her, because we need a man, we need women. Can you say that again?
Speaker 2:Can you say yeah, feminists don't know what they're missing when they say I don't need a man. Oh, yes, I do. I need him to open my doors, I need him to love me and pour his. Because you know what, tonight, when I leave here and I get home, guess what? My captain is going to be wait, he's tired. He's coming back from. He went. We have a property, he property. He's going to come home tired and there's a nice crock pot waiting with a nice roast. Oh my God, you give to a woman. She multiplies it for you. Right, right, right.
Speaker 2:If he wasn't giving to me, I'd be like let's do five podcasts, I don't have to be home tonight. I don't want to be home tonight. I don't get treated right. Instead, I'm just like we got to chop chop because my honey's going to be waiting and I want to eat with him. Those are important things in a relationship.
Speaker 2:So now I deviated far from our topic of how, when I met God, what made me fall so much in love with him? So here's now. It's not really a deviation, it's all connected. There's parallels here, because I stopped and I know that people might get uncomfortable with what I'm going to say, but for my sanity and for my relationship with God to get strengthened. Because I had only known about God all my life.
Speaker 2:I never knew what it was to go to a bar to do any of those things, because I was raised in a Christian home where you do everything, you check all the boxes until you get married, and I did all of those things religiously. I get rebellious when everything falls and I'm like I don't understand this. God then says I'll never stop pursuing you, fast forward. I had to stop seeing God as my God. Settle down, don't get upset yet. Settle down, don't get upset yet. I'm getting to my point. I, for my sanity, I had to see him as my Papa, my father, because as a God, it's intimidating, right, you read the old Testament. It's intimidating. You die in his presence.
Speaker 3:Yeah Right, the holies of holies. Only the priest can go in there, and he had to be free of sin. So you had to see god.
Speaker 2:you had to stop seeing him, just as your god, but as your father I knew he was my god already, but I was like I saw you as god all those years and look what happened to me. So I have to stop that. And now I want to know that I could go to you and say this sucks and it hurts because you know how I talked to my dad. So, yeah, so when I go to you and say this sucks and it hurts Because you know how I talk to my dad, soy la consentida. Yeah, so when I go to my dad, I never go.
Speaker 2:Señor Moreno, tengo que hablar con usted. ¿me puede dar una cita? No, I say me duele Anette, me dio un trancazo. Quiero que le lo hagáis y la regañes. Mi hermano acá me está jalando el cabello. We go in this. A spoiled kid goes in a demanding way with, and my father loves me so much there was nothing he would not give me. So I went to god and I said okay, you brought me into this world. In fact, when my mom was pregnant of me, doctor said she's coming all defected. You need to have an abortion. Really, yes, I was not supposed to be born.
Speaker 3:According to doctors and science, so you were a high-risk pregnancy. Oh my God, the doctor said you had all these defects and they recommended the doctors recommended told my mother to abort me, your parents to have an abortion. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:I was supposed to be aborted. And my mom said you know she's very faithful. And she said you know she's very faithful. And she says Diablo mentiroso, no va a venir como venga y Dios la va a sanar. Y si no, pues no la voy a abortar. And my dad always jokes because he says en cuando naciste, luego conté tus deditos Y conté tus manos, los dedos en tus manos y tus pies Dice lo único que llegaste robando de gorda es todo lo que tenías. Estabas tan gorda Desde entonces. Me gustaba comer.
Speaker 2:But you know, I think Satan's wanted to destroy my life since birth because he knew that there's a lot of things that got. So, de ahí me agarré con Dios, le dije you brought me into this world. Fix it, cause I don't know how to fix this. I world fix it because I don't know how to fix this. I have three kids that I have to raise now as a single mom and obviously their father was present in their life. But it was hard living alone with the kids, it was hard doing all those things. And I said you fix it because I have tried to fix everything.
Speaker 2:And look what happened. So I think I just remember saying, and you know what Papa, I didn't even call him God. I you know what, papa, I'm hurting. It hurts and I just, I just need you to love me right now and I need you to hear me out, even if it sounds bad. And Ezekiel, that was eight years ago and to this day I could still feel him right here. He's not one inch away from me. He's close to the brokenhearted, he's close to the humble he loves. When somebody says I get God, and that's when God goes, she gets me now. It's not religion. I'm her papa. She knows I'm her God. That was established a long time ago. Now she knows I'm her father.
Speaker 3:That is so good. I think. Greater the calling, greater the attacks yes, greater the purpose, greater the pain. The pain comes with purpose. That's beautiful, and the purpose comes with pain. They're hand to hand.
Speaker 3:People want the glory but they don't want to go through the fire. No, he is the potter, we are the clay, and we got to understand that God is going to move us, mold us. It's going to be uncomfortable, it's going to be a little hurtful, but at the end of the day, we're created with a great purpose and that is to serve. How do we serve? Maybe creating music that will change the world, which I really believe that you have done.
Speaker 3:And you know, I know you're known as a singer, as a mariachi, as an artist, but I can really see right now that people will now start to get to know you as a woman that can preach the gospel at a higher scale, cause I know you've done it already, I know you preach, but I feel like God is going to use you and elevate you to share a message to that person, like you've done it through your music even more frequently, because right now, what you're saying, these are, you know, jewels that you're speaking into our lives right now well, I think we have to keep it real and I think that Christians have failed there for one and I know this is going to be explosive, but I'm I'm 50.
Speaker 3:I'm over the criticism.
Speaker 2:You can tell me anything you want. When you're this age, you kind of look at life like what can you do to me now? I have been through hell five times.
Speaker 3:What doesn't destroy you, makes you.
Speaker 2:It makes you, and so I don't care what people think, but I will tell you this you got to keep it real, and a lot of people oh're christian. For one, the word christian it's a title that was given to us by pagans in antioch. Jesus never called us christians.
Speaker 3:what did he call us?
Speaker 2:sons of god, friends. When did he say christians, follow me. We were. They were his disciples, his apostles. There were people who revolutionized. He didn't give titles, antioch. Pagans were making fun of us and said look at those Christians. That's where we got the name from.
Speaker 3:Because they want to be like Christ, those Christians.
Speaker 2:Christian means little Jesus, little Christ. Wow, god says you're going to do greater things than me. Jesus said we're not little, we're his children. And so, yes, for the sake of religion and to not confuse people more, then, yes, call me a Christian if you want. But I'm not about titles, I'm going to keep it real.
Speaker 2:The relationship I've established in the last eight years with God has taught me to pray and get answers. I used to pray and not see answers. Now I get it. I get it and I ask for the things that I know I need. And I know I dare not to ask for what I want, because what Karina wants is destructive. But the things that I need, he gives them to me. And you know I will tell you something those of you who are going through a, really struggling right now, whether you're going through a divorce or you've been divorcing you just can't get back on your feet. I challenge you to go to God and tell him how you feel he can take it. My mom she's so adorable, I love the way she goes, ay mi hijita como le oras a Dios se me hace.
Speaker 2:I go. He's our father, mother, and now that she's getting older, she says I go. He didn't. When you pray, you pray and not say God, what are you doing? No, father, what are you doing in heaven? What's up? How would it be? My name, your kingdom come. And Miles Monroe speaks about how so many Christians are saying one day we will go to the kingdom. It's here already, yes, yes, he's going to come back for us. But why are you waiting to experience joy until we go to heaven? Heaven can be here in the meantime, experience it to the fullness and then, to top it off, we will be in a place where we will not cry anymore. But why not experience heaven on earth? I'm living on heaven on earth right now. I'm living in heaven on earth. I have experienced the goodness of God here. I'm not waiting to go to heaven to experience it.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:I'm experiencing it right here. You know what? Every day, when I see that there is something to be grateful for, that's heaven, my world could be falling apart. But I'm experiencing heaven. It's a dimension, it's a government that we don't understand if we get our minds into the earthly realm. But if you're in the kingdom mindset, you will understand what I'm talking about, and I want to tell anybody who's going through a rough time understanding God yeah, it's hard to understand God. I got news for you. God doesn't need you to understand. He's infinite. We're finite. There's no way we're going to understand him. However, he does want your heart, and so many people say prove to me that there's a gut. I don't want to because I can't. I mean, I can, I can have a dialogue that may make you feel like, huh, maybe there is a God. I'm not going to waste my time with that. How dare I, how dare I have the arrogance, with a finite mind, to address and explain an infinite God? There's no way I could do that in my humanity.
Speaker 3:And what people don't know is God lives out of time and space. Yes, he doesn't live in our concept, in our understanding of what eternity is and all this. He lives beyond our borders, our boundaries, and I think sometimes it takes more faith to believe that there is no God than that there is God, absolutely.
Speaker 3:If there's a creation, there must have been a creator. If there's a gift, there has to be a giver, a giver, right. If there's a gift, there has to be a giver, giver, right. So I don't think that we were just summoned out of nothing in the sense of a big bang. Absolutely, there's a specific amount of gravity. The sun is located at a right place, not too close and not too far enough to give us heat. And and enough, not not so close that it will burn us up. Right, Right, the moon is located. None of that stuff can happen just by accident. And God loves us so much that we're his perfect creation here on this earth. Isn't that beautiful.
Speaker 2:And it's not only beautiful, but it becomes more magnified, the beauty of it all. Right, when we ask ourselves this can you explain oxygen? I know I'm breathing it right now because I'm not dead, it's here. I can't see it, I can't explain it. That's where the magnitude of God becomes more real, because you can't explain certain things. But do you believe in oxygen? Yes, exactly, I can't explain certain things, but do you believe in oxygen? Yes, exactly, I can't explain God.
Speaker 2:Do I believe in him? Not just because my parents told me I met him eight years ago. I met him and you know what, even when I hadn't met him, as a little girl, I was told the story about how my father says God will provide and there was food. So I can't explain how that happened, but it happened. I can't explain how my father says God will provide and there was food. So I can't explain how that happened, but it happened. I can't explain how my life is filled with joy right now, but I have it. I can't see joy. It's not a substance, it's an emotion. I can't see oxygen or air, but I know it's there because I'm alive, and so there's some things where we're limited, but if you trust in God with all your heart and, as the Bible says, don't lean on your own understanding. It's pathetic, it's arrogant.
Speaker 3:What do you tell to the person that is maybe sitting down and they're like man, why has this and that happened to me? Why am I going through this? Why me, why this? What do you tell them? Do you regret anything that you've gone through?
Speaker 2:you want me to tell them something extraordinary. Tell them embrace the cactus, hug it until it pierces every part of your body, really, because that is what is going to catapult you to your purpose. Not the roses that you know, not the garden that you know, not the beautiful moments where you say, well, my life is pretty good, man, karina, and your life sucks from the thorns. Come the roses that you know. Not the beautiful moments where you say, well, my life is pretty good, man, karina, her life sucks From the thorns come the roses.
Speaker 2:That's where it comes from. That's where it comes from. Te vas a disparar cuando entiendas que tu propósito no está basado en la comodidad de tu vida, sino que en el carácter que Dios está formando en el desierto. That's where you come from, that's where you're catapulted. De ahí te disparas. Te disparas del desierto, no del jardín.
Speaker 3:Wow. So are you saying that you embrace todo lo que has pasado? You wouldn't change anything? The good, the bad, the pretty, the ugly, none of that.
Speaker 2:Not one thing would I change, but not only that. Now, when I have challenges what was happening with my kids during the divorce, the depressions and all the things that they encountered those things I was able to face it and go, and god's gonna deliver me from this one too. Wow, I didn't come apart like before, when I was religious, with the long skirts and the no makeup and fear, fearing 365 days a year, fear do I look like I'm supposed to do?
Speaker 2:god, are you pleased because my skirt's long? And did I please you by going being right onto 10 o'clock at church? Did I please you? And the whole time god's saying you stress me out so much?
Speaker 3:we make Christianity sometimes so complicated. You grew up not having to, not be able to wear makeup, not long skirts.
Speaker 2:I was the only kid in school with a long skirt.
Speaker 3:Everybody else dressed normal, just really yeah, you know, I was watching this video. You guys were in Arkansas in 1997, mariachi los salmos and you guys were at this church beautiful church, it seemed like, but it seemed like you. There was some feeling of being uptight a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah because there's a lot of fear in my parents. They did a beautiful job with what, and I have to tell people, learn, especially kids that come from an upbringing like mine. Okay, a lot of my friends have the same upbringing and this is a message Don't ever criticize your parents for upbringing, because that foundation only they could have given it to you. They did what they knew best. They weren't doing it to harm us. They believe that was honoring God. Now my parents, by their own admission, say there were some things that we could have left out, that weren't necessary, by their own admission, and humility is what got rewards. So I'm not knocking on my parents for that. I love everything I've been through now, but are there changes I want to make with future generations? Absolutely, and I think my kids are going to say my mom did this wrong and I would like to correct it. And I have to have humility in knowing that they're going to make some changes that are going to be good for their generation. That where I was deficient in that information.
Speaker 3:Right. So your parents, I think they did a great job of breaking the ice, of being pioneers, and you know, I'm sure you guys encountered moments where you went to these super religious places where they frowned upon mariachi, oh my God, where they criticized you guys and what are some of the things that cause I'm. I am going to show some pictures, not just yet, but I'm going to show some pictures of of you know, then you can elaborate a little bit about that. But, um, what's, what are some of the things that you guys encountered with religion and all this, um, being pioneers in the christian mariachi genre?
Speaker 2:nobody ever sang with mariachi in christian environments. My parents broke those barriers and then along came. All of the other mariachi singers came after. My dad is the one that broke the ice. Everybody basically rode on the backs of my parents that had gone through criticism. They went through so much, um hate, wow, because we were singing cantina music. That's what they call it. Esta música es de cantina. Cantina music. O sea le querían dar el crédito al diablo de la música mejor del mundo. They wanted to give the credit to Satan. I said how dare you give Satan the credit for the most beautiful the music that's going to be played in heaven? How dare you say the devil created it?
Speaker 3:Mariachi en el cielo.
Speaker 2:Mariachi en devil created mariachi in el cielo. Mariachi is a beautiful music of my father's heritage. It's in my blood and it's just beautiful. But that's what religion does. It hurts people, it doesn't help people.
Speaker 3:Religion hurts people.
Speaker 2:It does not help people wow it doesn't help wow, no it just hurts people and it all stems from a man or a woman who got arrogant and thought I want people to do what I want, and that's called manipulation and that's witchcraft and that is a sin.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Instead of teaching, what did the Catholic Church do for many years? Didn't let the people read the Bible why? Because they'd know the truth. Wow, and the truth sets you free. So in Protestantism we have the same people, people saying let's just tell them that this is bad because that's what we want.
Speaker 3:So you think that all these limitations, these man-made because I've talked to friends, um, I grew up pentecostal apostolic and then later on more apostolic and all that stuff. I basically was born in church. My mom almost gave birth to me on the altar, just to tell you so you have your this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I was. She was probably praise breaking and she almost gave birth to me. But you think, all these limitations, that are not necessarily things that are in the Bible, because I've had friends and I told them, well, this is not in the Bible, this is not in the Bible. And I'm like, yeah, it was just like. You know, your, your job has rules and stuff, and they don't want you to do this.
Speaker 3:I'm like, why can't you have a beard at church? That's kind of weird. Or why do you have to do this mandatory wise? And they're like, well, they're just, you know, part of the rules here at our church and stuff, but they're not in the Bible. And I'm like, yeah, we know, we of limiting the reach that you can have on just people that are never going to dress like that, because that's just not who they are, or you know, it's just a little bit too much. Yeah, in the sense that just people just want to come and worship and feel the love of christ and maybe turn their life around and it's a process. But do you think all of these rules man-made rules are just ways of manipulation?
Speaker 2:absolutely. What else could it be? It's okay, not only manipulation. But well, manipulation comes as a product of fear. When somebody is manipulating someone else, they're fearful of something happening, and that's why they say I'm going to manipulate this so that they do what I say, because I'm fearful of them doing the opposite. So manipulation is the product of fear. What does the Bible say about fear? Fear not.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Jesus said in John 14, no se turbe vuestro corazón. Creed en Dios, creed en mí. And here is where my message goes out to people who feel like, yeah, this is too complicated, I'm out. No, read the four gospels. And I challenge you to read the four gospels and nothing else. If this is where you are, because there was a time in my life where I couldn't read anything else, and you know why it's four gospels and nothing else if this is where you are, because there was a time in my life where I couldn't read anything else, and you know why it's four gospels, because that's the only place we find that jesus spoke jesus.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's in mark. Look in, john.
Speaker 2:Yes, and when you read what jesus preached, what was the core message? Just ask yourself what was the core message? It was love your neighbor, love God. It was, don't judge. It was. And it's funny because then you get these religious people that say, yeah, but he also spoke about hell. Yes, he did. Who did he speak to it about?
Speaker 3:Now you're going into. You said a key word right now, judge. You were recently at a political event and we'll get more in that, but you sing the song I did you feel, because I know that you did it with the intention of bringing people together.
Speaker 2:Going volver a la verdad Y el video muestra una Biblia. El video muestra morales valores, pero no se agarraron de sus, de sus este agarraron el berrinche, ¿no?
Speaker 3:De sus prejuicios, de sus prejuicios De su religiosidad.
Speaker 2:Y dijeron no, ¿por qué está cantando eso? Ahora mi pregunta es cada persona que me juzgó por eso, díganme en dónde trabajan Y si todos ustedes tienen un trabajo secular.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:Entonces, yo estoy cantando una canción secular, pero ustedes trabajan para una compañía secular. Entonces, pero ustedes trabajan para una compañía secular, entonces deja tu trabajo y vete a trabajar a una iglesia, a un orfanatorio. Haz eso mejor. Porque me estás juzgando? Porque estoy cantando mi arte, De mi arte hago la vida.
Speaker 3:Y si escuchas la canción en sí, no dice es una canción de amor, Es muy sana la canción?
Speaker 3:No, estoy cantando canción Es una clásica básicamente Tú estás hablando de los evangelios. You're talking about the gospels, yes, and one of the gospels I think it's Matthew or if not, probably Luke there's a story of the woman, the adulterous woman. Yes, that's about to get stoned to death, la van a pedrear a la muerte. And Jesus said something very clever. He said who he is free from sin. Cast the first stone. El que esté libre, libre de pecado, arroje la primera piedra. Exactamente, and I believe, yo creo, que en ese momento se empezaron a examinar a sí mismos. They started to examine themselves. And I'm sure that if we examine ourselves and or God puts all our actions, all the things that we do, we're going. Some dirty laundry, some dirty news, we all have something. So sometimes we're quick to point out all these things, which I don't even think it's necessarily a sin, but but when we have our own a greater sin a greater sin.
Speaker 2:Because the sin that we have in us is pride. Which Lucifer committed that sin. He didn't sing a ranchera called volver a volver, he sang, he had pride, he had disobedience. So you want to talk about sins? Then let's talk about your pride, your arrogance. Your religiousness comes along with pride and arrogance. When Jesus spoke about hell, he was never addressing the sinner. He addressed the religious leaders and he says you will reap hell, you will see hell, you will experience it. He spoke a lot about hell, but he was referring to the religious people. He went to the sinners and said go and sin no more, I heal you. He went to the sinners and said go and sin no more, I heal you. He went to the blind and gave him. He never once spoke to them and said you're going to hell because you're a sinner. Never. He was telling the religious leaders that there was a hell.
Speaker 3:So, karina, for that person trying to understand, where do we draw the line? Do we draw a line in what we can listen to? That's a great question, go ahead. Do we draw a line in what we can listen to? That's a great question, go ahead. Where do we draw? Because I mean, I know that song is not. As you know, you got to be ultra religious to be like you're going to hell for listening to Orbit Orbit. But where do you draw the line? Where do you draw the line? With what music do you draw the line?
Speaker 2:Jesus modeled. In the four gospels. Jesus modeled beautiful characteristics. Three of them I can think of is compassion, love, respect. You're asking me there's a fine line, or where you? Where do you draw the line? If I have respect, I'm not going to be singing Rata de los Patas, right? That degrades men. I'm not going to sing a rap song that talks about hurting a.
Speaker 3:Or degrading women.
Speaker 2:Calling a woman the B word, degrading them, saying that they're less than If I hear respect, I'm not going to. But what is wrong with singing a love song if Jesus taught about love? And if I want to sing, I want to go. Right now, I'm desperate to go back to the arms of my husband. It doesn't even have to be about the song that I interpreted it is about. It's a love song and there's nothing wrong with that. All honor and glory goes to God when we respect one another, when we love each other. So does it mean that every single song I sing has to go there? I want to sing love songs to my husband and there's nothing wrong with it, and if you have a problem with it, I respect you. Just leave me alone.
Speaker 3:Let God deal with you.
Speaker 2:Let God be my judge.
Speaker 3:Because, what is crazy, karina? There's going to be a day where we're going to be before the Lord, right, we're going to be before the Lord, and in that day, some people are going to be gloriously happy and they're going to enter into the gates of heaven, but there are some people that are ministers right now, pastors right now, prophets right now, evangelists right now that will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Because on that day, some are going to hear these words depart from me, for I do not know you doers of wrong, but, father god, we prophesied in your name, we casted out demons in your name, we did miracles in your name, right?
Speaker 2:we didn't listen to secular music, but we didn't sing Volver, volver Right, you know, and we're not.
Speaker 3:It's yeah, and what I'm trying to say with this is that sometimes we got to put things in a perspective. Life is all about balance, but I also believe in trying to be the best version of yourself in whatever it is that you do. Absolutely I want to. You want to. You want to be the greatest mariachi singer you can possibly be. I want to be the best at whatever I am doing. I want to be the best Christian I can possibly be.
Speaker 3:Not the Christian of the pagan terminology, no, I understand what you mean, yes, but the believer of Christ. Right and salvation is free. Anybody can receive salvation. You believe by faith and you're saved by grace and not by works, so nobody can boast With. That being said, salvation is free, but anointing comes with a cost, absolutely Right, and there's a difference between religion and a relationship. Once you get that down, you have a better understanding.
Speaker 3:But I do want to say that some people do think this way. They live a mediocre Christian life, in the sense that how much can I do before I sin? How much can I get away with before it becomes a sin? Like like I am a reach the limit and I'm a stop right here, right before it becomes a sin. And I believe in just doing your best possible, doing what you can, because I want to live out my purpose. I want to get to heaven and not get there without reaching what God had planned for my life. I want to reach the pinnacle of my purpose and I don't want to live a mediocre Christian life where I just do the bare minimum or I try to get away with as much as I can.
Speaker 3:I want to do what God has called me to do and if that means sacrificing certain things and I'm saying that because I can't judge others for what God is calling me to do If God calls me to do a 30 day fast or a 15 day fast or a seven day fast, you can't expect everybody else, and my wife doesn't want to do it. That's her conviction and what God has for her life. I can't judge other people if God is abstaining and telling me to abstain from certain things. Now, should they do it? Could they do it? Possibly right, but that's on them and what they want to accomplish in their life. Maybe they'll be saved, but will they be used greatly? I don't know. That's up for discussion. But I can't come and judge people. But that's not up to us to judge.
Speaker 2:Exactly, we can't judge people. Everybody has to do it on their own. Exactly, we have to stop trying to help god he doesn't need it like you and your.
Speaker 3:In your profession, I'm sure that you've met different singers that have aspirations to do great but they don't put in the work. Yeah, but yet we still love them, cool. Whatever, you go on your way, I'm going on my way, yeah. And another thing is, like you know, the baton. All that stuff is not given, it's earned, absolutely. When Elijah encountered Elisha, he was working it was what the oxen, the, the yuntas they call it and he ministered with him and he ministered with him and he was there. And I think sometimes people, um, they're in this religious world where they think that their actions are going to get them somewhere.
Speaker 2:Yes, but you also need the favor of god you need the favor of god, and I will tell you something you have to put the work in the miles and you have to bleed with the person's, with the person whose baton you desire so bad. And this is how I'll put it. I've so many people. I get inboxed by so many people saying, like Karina, like, could you mentor me? Can you do these things? And I tried to do it with a couple of people when I lived back in San Diego that were desperate to tag along because they wanted the anointing. Here's the deal. I would say absolutely, let's do this. So I got invited to a huge event. It was a Billy Graham crusade and I got to sing with a live mariachi and there were thousands of people and it was at the Home Depot Arena, or whatever it's called, in Los Angeles, and just a great turnout. We had wonderful treatment green room, all the food we wanted. Oh, these apprentices there were two ladies.
Speaker 3:Mentees and disciples or whatever. Yeah disciples.
Speaker 2:They were in heaven. They were like I could do this glamour.
Speaker 3:This is glory.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I had my makeup artist. I had my hair, people doing everything in the makeup room. They said I could do this. Not a month later I had to go to a prison in Tijuana and I invited them. They said, yeah, we're not going to do that, Wow. But they want the baton, but they want the anointing. So I turn and I go get your own anointing.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Get your own scars, bleed your own blood. Stop riding my back to get an easy ride for what you can sing. All you want the anointed is what is going to interpret the song?
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be very modest when I say this. I'm a professional singer, that I know it, and not just I know it, but I have been given this compliment by Top tier people. People in the secular level of mariachi who say Karina, you should record these songs over here, you would get super. I'm not. That's a whole nother discussion. That's not where I'm going in my life.
Speaker 3:You're speaking facts. Yeah, that's not where I'm going. I know you're trying to be humble, but there's a truth.
Speaker 2:You're a professional, I'm a professional talent, but but all the professionalism that I have is not going to provide my purpose or save a life from suicide. It's the anointing that comes through the bleeding and the scars and the life that I've lived. If you have not walked in my shoes, don't pretend to know who I am.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:And want to ride my back and get a free ride. It's powerful. No, get your own anointing Bleed your own blood. Stop wanting someone else's anointing. Get your own. A lot of people want to do that because they're fascinated with the glamour of it all.
Speaker 3:And they don't understand. That person cannot give you the anointing.
Speaker 2:No, only God could give that to you. That comes directly from God.
Speaker 3:Right, and you might pass a baton, but that was ordained by God, absolutely Ordained by the mantle, but that is at its right time. God has a daily hour in the moment, right, but, like you said, get your own, anointing in the sense that get it from God, not from a man. Get it from the one that gives it and provides it, from the creator of creation.
Speaker 2:God gave me this voice. Why do they come and say can I have your voice? That's not a baton, that's my voice.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:The baton is the anointing. The baton is the ministry. There's a lot of harvest out there that no one is harvesting. Go start picking the fields on your own.
Speaker 3:I did it. The harvest is plentiful. It's plentiful picking the fields on your own. The harvest is plentiful.
Speaker 2:It's plentiful, but the laborers are few. And you know why they're few Because they're looking to people like us to ride a free ride on top of you. Wow, no, that's not the way it works. Put the miles in Bleed Because through the blood, like the blood of Jesus, that's where the healing comes. Wow, when people hear my songs, they heal because of the blood that I bled through those moments that made me write the songs. The song Ella that I did with Alex Campos. That was a song about my divorce. Why do you think so many people have not gotten?
Speaker 1:divorced.
Speaker 2:Because they heard the song. So you want to just come and say can I have your voice? Absolutely not. Not only you can have it, because it's's not even, it's not even like, physically possible for me to do this and give it to you, but it's not spiritually possible I'm just mesmerized right now because you just brought up great point.
Speaker 3:Without there is no healing, without the bleeding. You think that you have to go through bad things in order to do great things?
Speaker 2:Yes, I believe it with all my heart. No one gets away with it. Think about all the people that were anointed in the Old Testament and the New Testament. None of them got away with it. They all had to bleed.
Speaker 3:So, abraham, what about those people that say, well, I don't have a testimony, I've never been through anything, I had a great life. God must not be able to use me. I had to go get a testimony for God to use me.
Speaker 2:So I just think that it's not a one size fits all. It's not like God says I'm going to use all of you guys the same way, so you guys are all going to go through the same process. There are people they're lucky, because if there's somebody that can literally say I've never had anything bad happen to me, I don't really have a testimony. Well, you know what?
Speaker 3:That's a testimony itself, I guess.
Speaker 2:Because we're a body and all the body parts have different functions, and you are there for a reason.
Speaker 3:This is my perspective, if I can share it with you. I think that what the enemy tried to use for evil, the Lord turns around and uses it for good. Absolutely the same thing that tried to kill the Hebrew babies and Moses. Absolutely God used it to get him into the palace like he was an Amazon Prime package. Oh my goodness, that's awesome. The same thing that the enemy will try to use to destroy you. God will turn it around to try to get, and will get, you to your purpose. So I think that whatever you've done, whatever hardships, whatever mistakes that you have gone through, just wait a second, because God's grace and mercy and love will come and he will turn it around and use it as a testimony.
Speaker 3:There is no testimony without a test right, whatever it is. But I will tell you sometimes that you know god can still use you without you having to go through those things right? There's so many ways god can use you. He can give you the gift of, of science, of wisdom and all that stuff I have drawn so much water from healthy wells.
Speaker 2:There's people that I have in my life, very close, that have been through a lot of I mean, they've only known, not glory but, just like you know good times in their life. Well, they have ministered to me. They have given so much kindness to me, they have given so much love to me and they've said I don't know your pain, but I'm here for you. Wow, that's a well I want to drink from. So everybody has a ministry, but it just depends what part of the body you are. You know, the head works different to this pinky. The foot works different to this shoulder. We're a body and we all have different functions and this finger isn't going. I wish I was that pinky on Karina's left hand. This finger is happy to be here.
Speaker 2:So when we're fighting for batons, don't fight for something. You're in the body, work in the function that God gave you and get your anointing, and that finger is going to do amazing things like the one that you want, right, god's going to do amazing things through us as a body of Christ. But there's different functions and I don't think it's funny. I don't think God needs a bunch of broken people to do his purpose. I think he uses broken and whole people. I just happened to be one of the broken ones. God saw me and he goes me la apaga. I want to answer something before we go on because I don't want to forget.
Speaker 1:Right, I just happened to be one of the broken ones. God saw me and goes me. La va a pagar Por traviesa Wow.
Speaker 2:I want to answer something before we go on, because I don't want to forget, right, there's an aspect of, and this is a lot of religious people say well, if you're so in love with the grace of God, then does that give you permission? And this, that question, stems from fear, just the question itself. That question stems from fear, just the question itself. Pues, por tanta gracia que te da Dios, pues te va a dar ganas de pecar más, sabes que Dios nunca te va a dejar de amar. That question or that statement is based out of fear.
Speaker 3:Okay, you think so.
Speaker 2:I believe it. I believe with all my heart, Because if somebody is saying, well then, if you believe that God gives all that grace, well then you're just going to sin. They don't understand something that I learned.
Speaker 3:I kept all the commandments.
Speaker 2:For so many years I did everything perfect because I didn't want to sin. I didn't want to sin. My priority was waking up every morning and being the holiest person in the world, and the moment that I just said this sucks, I give up. I can't do this anymore. And God says all right, you're keeping it real. But when you find the giver of your life and you're so in love with him, two things happen. Number one you don't want to give your back to him. He's been so good to me. Why would I want to leave the person who gave me the biggest chance of my life? Number two there's God's grace If I were to be the perfect Karina today and tomorrow, I say I'm going to sin the biggest sin today.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Is God going to love me less? No, but is there going to be something called consequences? Yes, yeah. And that's what I don't want. You know what?
Speaker 3:I think that we have all received a bunch of grace, yes and a bunch of mercy, and we just don't even realize it. Because if we determine it and we define what they are, what is mercy? Mercy is not receiving what you deserved. If I was driving 100 miles per hour in a 35 mile zone and I got pulled over by a cop and I started praying in my vehicle and the police comes back and somehow, some way, he doesn't give me a ticket or takes me to jail, that was mercy. I did not get what I deserve. What is grace? Receiving what we didn't deserve? We didn't deserve God's forgiveness. We don't deserve God's love. We don't deserve salvation. We were dead in our sins and our transgressions.
Speaker 3:God died on that cross. God died on that cross Knowing, if you could put it on me, knowing that we were going to sin, knowing that we were going to make mistakes. I have a son and I have a baby. I have a five-year-old son. I will never give him up. I will never put him to die for anybody, because I know they're going to stop talking to me. I know they're gonna stop talking to me. I know they're gonna fail me. I know they're gonna forget what I did for them. But you know what Jesus did that for us. Knowing that we were gonna fail, he gave us grace. He gave us and we received something we didn't deserve. Yes, so if we really want to think about it, oh, maybe we're just very vocal of God's grace and mercy upon our life, that that comes from gratitude. Gratitude has nothing to do with what we have and don't have. Gratitude has everything to do with our hearts. When we have that posture of gratitude, of thank you God for this grace, and they hear it and they see it, they're like thinking that we're sinning and that's why we talk about grace so much. But no, if we all understand that God has been extremely merciful, but no, if we all understand that God has been extremely merciful and extremely gracious with all of us, then we wouldn't even have those type of comments.
Speaker 3:You know, I did an illustration one time, karina, and I'm sorry for the time, but I did an illustration one time when I was preaching to youth and I had two of them stand side by side and I gave them both a spoon, and I gave a bigger spoon to one of them and I gave them water, and then I gave them water to another one Right. So I had them walk and they started walking and one started walking faster than the other one because he had an easier way of going about it and the other one started walking faster. And when they first got, when they both got to the finish line, I asked them did you drop any water? And they both didn't and they said no, I did it.
Speaker 3:And I said why was that? Because I was focused on what I had in my hands. I wasn't looking to the left, I wasn't looking to the right, I was focused and I was careful of what I had in my hands. And I said if you go about that in your life and in your faith, you will not mishandle what God has given you because you won't be preoccupied with what they're doing and what they say and all this. You're more worried about what you have in your hands and you cherish it and you take care of it, and God will not give you more if you keep mishandling what he has already given you. Some people are bitter because they never reach the next level, because they're like this. They're worried about what's Karina doing, what's Anet Moreno doing, what's Eliezer, the pastor, doing, what's Linda the mom doing, when we are all giving something to cherish, to take care of in our hands.
Speaker 2:And you're spilling the water because you were looking at other people's lives and you're not getting to where you need to get to.
Speaker 3:Yes, I want to ask you for those people that have judged your family harshly. You know there's some pictures here that I want to share with you on the screen. This is your Marachi family I want to share with you on the screen. This is your Marachi family producer. We could put them on the screen. This is you and your sisters singing in Arkansas in a church, and one of the people that presented you guys said that in one of the presentations maybe not at that church, but somewhere in Arkansas, 200 people gave their life to christ. Yeah, that's you guys playing the violin very beautiful. And then you know, talking about secular music and all that stuff. Your dad in this church sang a song. If you could put a picture of her parents, um, your dad, eliazar, sang a song to your mom, linda.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a love song esposa mia, esposa mia, very beautiful, was a love song, paloma esposa mia, esposa mia, very beautiful song.
Speaker 3:Beautiful love song, beautiful song. And then I think there's another picture of you singing. I think en tus brazos, en sus brazos, en sus brazos, you were singing. Look Amazing.
Speaker 2:I look so much like Sarah there, my baby so much.
Speaker 3:Wow, and Victor's younger than me, so he doesn't know too much.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he wasn't even born there.
Speaker 3:But we have Annette Moreno. She was singing and you told me she has gone through a lot have you bled like her, have you walked in her shoes?
Speaker 2:And so many people have judged her for singing songs that somebody just didn't Again a man or a woman that just decided I don't like this. So I'm just going to say that she's a devil worshiper or whatever the platform that she has today. I think I believe that she's got it because she's put in so much work and effort into what she has. But the foundation of it all was her obedience in a moment where she just didn't want to obey. She didn't like mariachi. She was. She's been a rocker since she was very little, but she showed humility, perseverance, patience, and those qualities are things that Jesus talked about in the four gospels. You got to, you got to persevere, you got to obey. You have to do those things to see goodness in your life and I believe all of my brothers and sisters are a product of that. We obeyed. I was obedient to my parents, so I believe that today I am.
Speaker 3:That's her right there.
Speaker 2:There she is.
Speaker 3:There she is my beautiful sister. Yes, and that's her right there. There she is. There she is my beautiful sister.
Speaker 2:Right, yes, but I believe that we are all a product of obedience. My parents were very strict, and the obedience that we displayed has helped us to be where we are today. We weren't perfect, but you know, the buckle that my dad had on that belt was a little scary, so we had to obey. Yeah, what is that? Esos cintarazos belt was a little scary, so we had to obey.
Speaker 3:Yeah what is that? The parents back then? They didn't play no games. They were like about their business. What is one fond memory, or how was those days with the salmos? Mariachi, mariachi, los salmos they're beautiful.
Speaker 2:I can't forget those. They formed me. They did, you know, just driving, touring, doing long tours, going all over the world. We went all the way to israel with the mariachi you guys we sang to palestinians, to israelis, we went to europe.
Speaker 2:I mean, we just we've traveled the world, our music has reached a lot of places and it's because my parents were very serious about their call. They, they didn't take it lightly and that's why I say I can't sit here and complain. Oh no, they were so strict and they didn't let me wear makeup, and I was the only kid at school. I mean, it was challenging, but at the end of the day, all those kids who were allowed to wear makeup and all that stuff, well, I'm not going to judge, but look what God is doing through my life right now. I hope god's doing through their life.
Speaker 2:But you know, a lot of times we miss read our current situation and don't know what lies ahead. If you just stick it out and it's all about obedience, and it was just like, as soon as I get a little older, I'm gonna start wearing what I want to wear, but right now you'll submit. I'm gonna submit because I am living under my parents roof and I am doing this and that, and then, once I left the house, I didn't want to rebel because I loved what I had.
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, life threw me a curveball and I didn't know what to do with it I'm glad you're in a better place and the word the word of god says honor your father and your mother so that you may live a long life in the land the Lord, your God, has given you Absolutely. And I just don't want to live a long life, I want to live a good long life, a good life.
Speaker 2:Matusalem lived 969 years and there's only one verse that says that. It doesn't say what kind of life he lived. Jesus lived only 33 years and what a revolution he caused.
Speaker 3:And God has plans to prosper you and not to harm you Absolutely, to give you a future and to give you hope. Jeremiah 29 11. The one we expect. You've come such a long way. Can you bless us with one of your songs today, and that song I know is so meaningful En Sus Brazos. He's your father and his arms brought you through a hard, difficult moment, in a season where you weren't confident, you had low self-esteem, where you were going through such a tough season and it was dark. Like you said, can you bless us this night with that song?
Speaker 1:Absolutely I don't know. I felt that my God had forgotten about me and I said it's not possible to continue living like this. Suddenly I saw the sky the thorns were sprouting, also drops of blood, and I saw that my Lord for my sorrows was crying Por mis penas, lloraba. Y en medio de llorar, llegó un ser divino A mi alma sedienta. Le dio agua, agua, agua viva. Quitó de mí el dolor y me tomó en sus brazos. Ya no puedo vivir sin ti, señor, sin su mano. Sé que yo voy a perder. Ya no quiero hacer lo que no debo hacer. Solo quiero mirarte y no voltear atrás. Permíteme vivir mi vida en tu verdad, y así tus ojos miren mi puro caminar, porque quiero ser como tú, quiero hablar como tú, quiero andar como tú Y a un mar como tú, yo te ruego, Dios mío. Y en medio del llorar llegó un ser divino. Oh, mi alma sedienta le dio agua, agua viva. Quitó de mí el dolor Y me tomó en sus brazos. Me dijo ven conmigo. Y las lágrimas él me quitó.
Speaker 2:Wow amazing. Very, very healing song. There's a lot of healing because when I finished writing that song, ezekiel, I saw it leave. I didn't feel it leave. I saw the darkness leave. I saw something, a darkness leave my body as soon as I finished writing the last verse. It was a healing process to write it and my father's the one that said because I had told him I don't know what to do with what I'm going through, and he said, he says Sometimes you got to praise and worship your way out of certain circumstances.
Speaker 2:You have to say what you don't believe there. I didn't believe that I was whole, but I had to say it.
Speaker 3:Amazing.
Speaker 3:And it manifested man, there's so much power before behind that song, all of your music. Man, when you were singing right now, like I can't believe it, I listened to your music with my mom and you know she's with the lord now. Um, I was like what would my mom be saying right now? It's just so incredible that you know where God takes us for being faithful for him. I'm not saying I'm perfect, I'm not saying that you know I deserve to even be in the positions that I find myself, but I can say that I've persevered in certain circumstances I've been consistency and I can see the fruits of that. Like you said, sometimes you got to bleed a little bit, little bit, you gotta go through the hurt a little bit. And right now, your music. I was just in awe right now, the like, the audio cut out a little bit, but I was in awe because I was like I can't believe.
Speaker 3:Um, I'm hearing this worship, this music, this mariachi right now, and it's been a blessing to my life and it's been a blessing to so many people. And I know it's not just a whatever song. It's a song that has a message, it has meaning, but a story. It has a story, it's brought healing and man. You've been a pioneer, you've been a innovator. You, you've been somebody that has brought truth to people, and now you can also tell the people like it's not just religion, it's not just this, it's a relationship. He's not just my God, he is my father.
Speaker 2:Get to know him.
Speaker 2:Get to know him, not about him. Get to know him. You're going to want to walk with him every day. And for those people that say, but you know, like, aren't you afraid that because he's so merciful and gracious that it'll make you want to sin In this place, you don't want to be there, you just want to be with him. Because now, if a challenge comes today, I look at it and I say, and he will deliver me like he delivered me before.
Speaker 2:I don't live in fear anymore, I'm not afraid. Fear makes people move away from God. Trust is what makes you draw closer to him. And so many religious people are so afraid. They're afraid they're going to disappoint God. Let me tell you, you can't disappoint him. Consequences will come because of our behaviors, but the love that he has for us is unconditional. I could be holy Karina or sinful Karina. He loves me the same. Now. Holy Karina remains in peace. Sinful Karina has to bear the fruits of the consequences of fear and rejection of the presence of God. But he loves me. So it's up to me. Where do I want to be? Here or here, and that removes fear.
Speaker 3:Man, I can be here all night, but I know you want to get to your husband, you want to know what I've left in the crock pot, a nice big roast beef.
Speaker 2:And I'm hungry. And it's funny because yesterday I posted a reel. Because I said, babe, breakfast is ready and he comes in. He says Mexican food again, and I try to make it as American as I could because he loves Mexican food but we have it all the time because I love to cook it and I could live only with that. So today I said babe, I said I'm going to have something ready for you. He goes what is it? And I go it's not Mexican. So today I said babe, I said I'm going to have something ready for you. He goes what is it? I go it's not.
Speaker 2:Mexican. It's a nice pot roast.
Speaker 3:How American does that get?
Speaker 2:You'll have Mexican later. We'll have tacos tomorrow, for sure. And I said, and for that smart ass remark you made, we're going to eat tacos on Friday. Karina what?
Speaker 3:is some last words you can tell to the people that have gotten to this point on the podcast that have been absolutely blessed.
Speaker 2:Get to know him, not about him. Get to know him, feel him. Call him Papa and you know what, if you're mad at him, he can take it.
Speaker 3:That's good.
Speaker 2:He can take it, you can speak, and he wants you to keep it real. You know why? Because he already knows. Anyways, he knows, it's in your heart, just say it out loud.
Speaker 3:Amazing. Well, thank you, karina, for being on Elohim Podcast, a podcast about real life issues, and today we spoke about real life issues yes absolutely From a biblical perspective. It was an absolute honor and a privilege to be able to share this platform with you today. Thank you so much for everything. Thanks for having me, thank you. Thank you, guys. Please like, share and subscribe. Stay tuned for more episodes like this one. I know this is going to be a blessing to whoever listens to this. Thank you very much. Elohim Podcast.